Estimating Periods of Vibration of Buildings with Coupled Shear Walls

In this paper the resulting equation for natural vibration of buildings with coupled shear walls is proved to be the forth-order Sturm-Liouville differential equation, and a hand method for determining the first two periods of natural vibration of the buildings is presented. The method is accurate and simple, compared with other calculating methods. Once the structural parameters (alpha) H and (mu) of coupled shear wall building are computed, the periods of the buildings can be readily obtained. The value of the method is that it will allow a more consistent and accurate use of code formulas for calculating the earthquake induced maximum base shear in a building. Use of the method is economical with respect to both computer time and equipment, e.g., a hand calculator would suffice to handle the calculations of periods of the buildings. This paper is thought to be useful for the practicing engineer.